TALLADEGA, Ala. — It took a pair of Davids — Ragan and Gilliland — to take down the rest of stock car’s giants Sunday.

Winning driver Ragan and second-place Gilliland started eighth and 11th, respectively, in a two-lap overtime shootout at the end of the Aaron’s 499. The teammates from underfunded and unheralded Front Row Motorsports worked together in a nose-to-tail tandem to carve one of the most memorable final laps in Talladega Superspeedway history.

They snuck their Fords through the darkness and rain to catch others off guard. They stormed past five-time champion Jimmie Johnson and former champion Matt Kenseth. They got by Carl Edwards and pulled away to a stunning finish that was very popular throughout the entire garage area.

“If it wasn’t for that final push from David Gilliland, I don’t know what to say,” Ragan said. “This is a true David versus Goliath moment here. Front Row Motorsports Ford.”

Ragan was 40 yards ahead of Gilliland at the finish line.

Their last-lap charge was so unexpected and so impressive, none of the frontrunners saw it coming.

“When they came up, I said, ‘Who is that?’ They were coming,” Edwards said. “As frustrated as I am for the loss, I’m really happy for these guys. I know how hard teams have to work to compete at this level. I wanted to win that race very, very badly. But this couldn’t happen to two better guys.”

Gilliland was committed to his teammate to the finish.

“What a great day for Front Row,” Gilliland said. “I know he would have done the same to me. I was locked to his bumper and I wasn’t going to let go.”

The finish was a perfect way to end a bizarre day. The start of the race was pushed up by 13 minutes to give NASCAR a better chance to work around expected delays for rain. There was a 3-hour, 36-minute, 6-second red flag period for a pair of storms — the second that included lightning and hail — but the race finally resumed with 63 laps to go.

Kenseth, who led 142 of 192 laps, was out front to start the two laps of overtime. Ragan and Gilliland went by so quickly, Kenseth never recovered and wound up eighth.

“They came up on us so fast,” Kenseth said. “I saw Carl tried to block and there was no way to block that.”

Ragan’s only other victory came in 2011 at the Daytona International Speedway in July. After that season, he lost his ride at Roush Fenway Racing and finally signed to drive for Bob Jenkins’ Front Row Motorsports.

Despite some struggles — Ragan was 28th in driver points last year and entered Sunday’s race ranked 26th — he’s been dedicated to reviving his career and helping his car owner beat impossible odds.

“We’re a small team,” Ragan said. “We build our own chassis, our own bodies. Man this is big. I couldn’t be more proud to play my own role.”

Ragan and Gilliland combined to give Jenkins just his third and fourth top-five finishes in 406 starts dating back to the 2005 season.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. triggered an 11-car crash with five laps remaining when he tried to press between J.J. Yeley’s car and the outside wall. Kurt Busch’s car flipped once and landed on Ryan Newman’s roof.

It was so dark NASCAR said it would attempt just one green-white-checkered restart. Ragan started eighth and immediately got a big push from Gilliland.

Brian Vickers replaced Denny Hamlin on the 24th lap during a minute-long driver swap on pit road without dropping the No. 11 Toyota off the lead lap.

Vickers didn’t last long. He was part of a 16-car pileup heading into the first turn just 18 laps after taking over for Hamlin. The accident started when Kyle Busch turned Kasey Kahne’s car into the outside wall.